sundays and a midwinter crisis
by AlexisKeller
Summary: She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment it happened. All she knew was, fall was here again and this time, she was in love.
1. Chapter 1

_sundays and a midwinter crisis_

AlexisKeller

* * *

They have an unconventional start.

He thinks she's annoying and she yells at him for being an asshole.

It all begins at a little café by the park.

Sasuke's running late one morning and his parents are touching down at the airport to visit him for the first time in four years (they couldn't make it a few days earlier in time for his graduation, but that's okay, Itachi came). So, he's running late and he calls ahead to this little café by Konoha Park for coffee because he really can't face his family without it. This is because his father is annoying and his mother is fussy.

Hence coffee.

He gets there from his apartment in ten minutes and he really doesn't want to waste time here because it'll be another fifteen to the airport. He needs to hurry.

So he swings in, pays, grabs his coffee, turns, and in his hurry he doesn't notice that where he's standing, the floor is wet.

But he has fast reflexes and he catches his step and manages not to spill his coffee.

But sadly, that's not all.

He also unintentionally pushes a blonde that pushes a _pink-haired_ girl next to her who spills her scalding hot coffee on _Sasuke_.

Fucking Christ.

He stands still and clenches his jaw tight, glaring at the offending stain at his shirt and then at the offending girl in front of him.

"My shirt," he croaks and it's not quite a growl because his skin is still burning like fuck.

"I'm sorry," she says, looking alarmed as she should be. "I am seriously, truly sorry."

"Sorry's fixing this how exactly?" Ah, there it is. The bite in his voice is back.

She opens her mouth as if she has something to say, but ends up pressing her lips together. "I'll get it dry-cleaned."

"Be better if you'd just watch where you're going," Sasuke says. "That would have saved a fuckuva lot of time _and_ my shirt."

That's when she narrows her bright green eyes at him and accuses, "You know what? At least I was standing where I should be, not in the closed queue where the floor is wet, asshole. And so _I_ wasn't the one who caused a chain reaction to spill my coffee on you." Her friend barely stifles a giggle.

Screwed as that shit was, it made sense.

He doesn't admit that. He settles for glaring again.

And as he does this, he notices that she's pretty. Really fucking pretty. Intelligent green eyes, long pink hair and elegant features all make her so.

She's got fascinating lips too.

Remembering, he glances at his wristwatch again. He really doesn't have time for this.

He makes it around the two girls and stalks out the door without another glance back.

In the end, he meets his parents at the airport with a huge coffee stain on his shirt.

* * *

Sakura hates walking Naruto's dogs.

No, that's not right.

She loves Ramen and Pizza, really, she does. She also does like walking them.

She just hates the part where she has to get up early in the morning to do that.

Like for example, today: seven in the morning on a Sunday.

That should be a fucking crime.

It was Sunday, which meant she should be at home wallowing and moping the entire day way because Monday was imminent.

But then again, Naruto was too lazy to sacrifice his lazy day, so someone had to. And Ino was not going to be that someone because on the Saturdays that Sakura didn't go out with her, she usually got back at five a.m. after partying it up.

So that duty fell upon her.

She wonders how long the three of them would live together. They've had an apartment near campus and have been living together for some while now. Almost a whole year, to be exact.

Which was a long time.

She finds a bench and unfastens the leashes on Ramen and Pizza, after which they disperse, dashing straight towards the birds near the fountain. She doesn't mind, this is how it's always been and they're collared dogs, not to mention the fact that they always come back to her. She settles on the bench and her mind continues along the previous line of thought.

She knows she'll never forget Pancakes Friday—Naruto sucked in the kitchen but man, was he good at pancakes. She'll also never forget Ino inadvertently teaching both of them how to master the art of tuning out during cheesy pop songs and she'd done this by playing her favorites out loud every morning while they got ready for classes, much to their chagrin. Also, she loves that she'd had both of them beat at Call of Duty.

Hmm. Maybe instead of thinking of it as a temporary circumstance, they should stick to their current living situation. At least for the rest of their time at college.

It's as she's pondering this that someone drops down on the bench she's sitting on, right next to her.

She turns and stares.

She remembers him. _Of course_ she remembers him.

It's not every day you spill your coffee on Adonis.

Alright, no.

He wasn't Adonis. Not by a long shot.

He was _better_ (no offense to the Greek God, she was sure he a good personality or whatever).

This guy was rougher, more rugged-looking and the continued presence of the small stubble around his mouth suggested that he wasn't into growing a beard but he wasn't completely against it either. He was seriously tall and had _great_ shoulders. His hair and eyes were dark in a particular way that made him look Gorgeous with a capital g.

Then she remembered the downright jacked up way he'd talked to her and the stormy way he'd blown out of the café.

That sobered her up quickly.

Because she'd bet anything to say that Adonis might've had better manners than this guy.

Then she notices he is doing some staring of his own.

This makes her super-conscious. It's Saturday morning and she's walking dogs; and not down a runway, so she'd barely managed to run a brush through her hair, wash her face, brush her teeth and change into dark jeans and a grey long sleeved sweater. Oh, and her trademark necklace.

No makeup.

She had gloss on, but except for that, nothing.

But then she notices the way he's staring and that's enough to tamp down some of her mortification.

He liked what he saw. The appreciative glint in his eyes say so.

Oh, fuck ducks, she needed to go.

She's just about to get up when he says one word that scares the living hell out of her, "Dinner."

She looks at him, unsure of what he means but scared of what he implicates. "Um, sorry?"

He matches her gaze with those dark eyes and says in a strong, clear voice, "Go to dinner with me."

She _had_ to have heard that wrong.

"I don't even know you." She states.

He looks amused. The nerve. "Sure you do."

"What I do know of you is that you have bad manners," she tells him happily.

"Then get to know the rest of me," he counters with ease, putting an arm on the head of the bench behind her and leans back comfortably.

She wants to, she really does because he is _hot_ but she's witnessed him being an asshole and she really doesn't need that, so no.

"No, thank you." She's about to get up again, but then he says something completely outrageous that nearly gives her a freaking heart attack this time.

"It'll happen, that mouth on mine."

She freezes.

 _Yes. Yes, please_ , some part of her brain shrieks and then for a moment, so does the part of her brain that possesses common sense.

When she thinks she has a hold of herself, she looks at him again and actually _screeches_ , because really. " _What?_ "

He didn't say that, she chants to herself. You heard it wrong, he didn't say that.

He says nothing more.

Gives her a look and turns to gaze out at the park.

She is indignant and embarrassed and this has to be the second time he's made her so.

She gets up, claps her hands twice, and Pizza and Ramen trot over to her dutifully. She tags on their leashes, all the while making it a point to ignore this man's existence.

Really, she complains. _And she doesn't even know his name_.

She turns on her heel and starts walking away just as he calls out, "Sakura."

She wouldn't have stopped, really. But he somehow knew her name, so that surprised her.

How did he even know her name?

Instinctively, her hand went up to the silver chain Naruto and Ino had had crafted for her (she and Ino agreed that nobody went with their whole first names on chains anymore but Naruto had declared that just initials were far too ordinary, so there was a tiny little script that spelled her name on it) and she realized that was how he knew.

When she darted a quick glance at him, he simply said, "It's Sasuke," with those dark serious eyes and she blinked.

What, he could read her now?

She tugged on the leashes and did the only thing she could possibly do in the situation: she bolted.

* * *

She sees him again next Sunday.

She doesn't talk to him and he doesn't bother initiating conversation. Just tags along uninvited as she takes a walk in the park while Ramen and Pizza are terrorizing the birds.

It's kind of nice, actually.

* * *

The Sunday after that, he initiates conversation.

It's terrible and it goes something like this:

"You're annoying."

Her mind blanks for a minute due to sheer fury.

" _What?_ "

He doesn't repeat what he said. But she'd heard him. Oh, she'd heard him.

"What? I'm annoy— _I'm annoying?_ Because I'm the one who's unwelcome and tagging along anyway? I mean, stalker jazz, much?"

This seems to satisfy him because one side his mouth hitches up and Sakura very nearly forgets that she's pissed at him because he looks amazing.

What? She's only human.

She continues to gripe, though. "And really, why are you even here anyway? I think it's the third Sunday now. What are we going for here? Are you going to Sunday-stalk me? Is that it?"

That must amuse him more because the other corner of his mouth hitches up a little too.

His increasing hotness was really grating on her nerves.

"You know," she spits out bitterly, "the hottest guys are always the serial killers."

He raises his eyebrows at her. "So you think I'm hot."

Great.

It was a double-edged sword. She talked herself in it, now she had to talk her way out.

"No," she says. "I think you're a serial killer."

Silence.

It's official, she's an idiot.

He raises his eyebrows again and even though he isn't exactly smiling there's humor on his face that says she hadn't exactly talked her way out.

 _Ugh_.

"Okay, really," she begins again, because she really needs to set the record straight here. "How long do you plan on doing this?"

"A while," is his vague answer.

"Sasuke," she starts, and he turns to her sharply. The look he gives her is different; pretty intense.

It _so_ makes her want to jump in bed with this stranger.

Then she realizes that it's probably the first time she's ever called his name.

Something about that chills her to the bone.

She doesn't say anything. Just gets caught in his eyes as he gives her that look.

Then he moves. He gets closer, as if he's just about to lower his head and Sakura's fucking _anticipating_ it, because her eyes nearly flutter shut and her blood feels like it's on fire.

It's a nice feeling. But it doesn't last for long because it's as if he snaps out of some trance and straightens.

Then he just turns around and walks away.

She hates that he almost kissed her.

She hates that she wanted it.

She also hates that he stopped.

* * *

Sasuke sees her again on the fourth Sunday, that is, the first September Sunday.

This is getting old. He's going to have to get them out of this Sunday thing they've fallen into because it's now irritating.

Of course, he runs at Konoha Park everyday in the morning before heading down to the firm and working with Itachi. It's been a couple of months since Sasuke graduated from KU but he wasn't known for sitting on his ass doing nothing for long. So, he was getting acquainted with work before he made the next move in his career.

But the current situation had its perks too.

He got to see the pretty girl with serious attitude who could probably sass him into laughing and Sasuke had no fucking idea the last time he'd done that.

Jesus.

His endgame was her, of course. But he'd almost fucked up last Sunday. He had to get to know her well in order to get her to lower those kitty claws, and he'd very nearly screwed that.

He wonders if she'd even be here now, after he'd done that; almost kissing her.

He also wonders if she's figured out that him expending effort and time on her meant he was into her.

The first time seeing her here was merely coincidence, the second time almost the same but the third had been all him. Now too, it was him looking for familiar pink hair.

He couldn't spot any pink hair.

What he did spot, though, was a huge-ass bright-fucking- _yellow_ hat.

There she was.

Hunkered down on a bench with a newspaper open wide in front of her.

Hiding.

Or, well, trying to hide and not doing so very well.

Now? Now he grinned.

* * *

 **hey. how's everyone?**

 **i'm sorry i've been pretty irregular, but i've had a lot going on and life is busy.**

 **this is going to be a three-shot and i hope you liked it. review and let me know! my next update is going to be AOV, which is going to be soon, and i hope everybody there is still alive. hang tight, guys and see you soon.**

 **-lexy.**


	2. Chapter 2

_sundays and a midwinter crisis_

AlexisKeller

* * *

He won't spot her, she's sure of it.

After all, she has this huge ugly hat to hide under, right?

Wrong.

She realizes that when he settles on the grass next to her and she groans because _really_.

"Not sunny enough for a hat, is it?" He's looking at Ramen and Pizza chasing the birds silly near the fountain but he's talking to her, that bastard.

She removes her gigantic joke of a hat before she starts complaining.

"Just when, in the not so distant future, will you leave me alone?"

He looks at her till she's totally mesmerized by those eyes before he shrugs.

 _Just shrugs and turns away_.

Ass.

This is clearly not ending anytime soon, she realizes. That puts her in a foul mood and that sucks, because there used to be a time when she actually enjoyed walking the dogs at the park despite having to get up early in the morning.

She can't change this.

And that irks her.

"I don't like this," she voices out her thoughts.

He merely blinks. "Suck it up, princess."

Humph.

She sees no other option so reluctantly, she tries.

* * *

Next Sunday, the fifth Sunday of this entire ordeal, she's enjoying the crisp October air on a park bench. She has a book and therefore she has an excuse to ignore Stalker Hottie's very being.

That is, if he shows up.

He's late and that's weird—not that she's waiting for him or anything, _she's not_ —because he's usually oddly punctual but right now, he's nowhere to be seen.

This reminds her that he actually has a life and so she's probably not that high on his list of priorities.

That deflates her a little.

Okay, _a lot_.

She honestly doesn't want him around because he's a jerk and a stranger but the thing is, he's _hothothot_ and she's only human.

No, scratch that—she's a girl who a hot guy like him is giving _attention_.

That pretty much sums it up.

It's like getting a taste of something good and winding up wanting more.

Of course, he wasn't all in-your-face about it. Not after their first meeting at the park, at least. It was a more careful sort of attention. The kind that he found her for every Sunday sort of attention.

It had been only over thirty-five minutes and she missed that attention already.

Damn her.

And him.

That's when she tries to read. She gets in about ten minutes when she thinks it's probably around time to leave. Just when she's about to snap the book shut, someone settles down next to her on the bench and for a crazy second she is insanely overjoyed.

He really has impeccable timing, she thinks with a shake of her head.

She turns to him, but it isn't him sitting next to her.

It's _Naruto_.

There's a lot here, but what she feels most is the disappointment.

She can't find it in her to hate that because she's just _way_ too disappointed at the moment.

"What are you doing here?" She manages.

"Early practice," he grins easily. Ah. That made much more sense. Nothing like a mandatory football practice with a tough coach to haul Naruto's ass out of bed early. It was probably the _only_ thing that could haul his ass out of bed early. "Decided to swing by. Met a friend and got caught up. Sorry 'bout that."

She shakes her head and smiles back.

"Breakfast?" he asks.

She smiles again in answer before she remembers the remaining part of their trio. "You could've texted Ino too."

Naruto gives her a _get real_ look. "Girl sleeps in. She _always_ sleeps in."

True.

He goes on, "Her breakfast is when we have lunch."

True again.

He isn't done. "Even I wake up earlier than her."

"She has late nights." Sakura defends her best friend.

Naruto merely scoffs.

She decides to leave a message with Ino anyway, hoping she'd take a look at her phone whenever she woke up. Then she talks to Naruto for a while about some absurd subject regarding the washing machine and how it wasn't working right. Then she watches the dogs.

When it's over twenty more minutes, she can't stall anymore.

He wasn't coming.

And she had a breakfast to get with Naruto and possibly Ino.

She guesses it was over, whatever it was.

She faces Naruto with a bright smile on her face even though she really doesn't feel like it.

* * *

Something weird happens that night.

After grabbing breakfast with just Naruto after all, Sakura's pretty much had classes all day, not to mention a late Biology class and it's around eight when she's walking back to the apartment (because she'd gotten caught up at the lab afterwards). The walk back from campus is less than five minutes, tops, but right now it feels like an eternity as she trudges up the stairs to the building.

She loves her apartment. It's not one of those rarely acceptable off-campus student accommodations, it's a separate area owned by some hotshot lawyer, so basically it's awesome. It's big and spacious with a modern eco styled interior design. She hadn't been convinced when Ino saw it first with Naruto, but she was totally sold when she herself went to the second viewing.

There was chunky contemporary furniture and it had every little thing that made it _theirs_. Things like Naruto's annoying as hell, bright fucking orange beanbag chairs— _seriously, he is a child,_ Ino always grouched—with Ino's obvious insistence to keep state of the art cooking supplies though she hardly ever cooked and Sakura's plants at every turn because every place needed a touch of something fresh, bright and green. And that did not include the rotting pizza she'd once found underneath Naruto's bed (she'd seen to that never happening again).

Of course, an apartment like that is no joke and costs a chunk out of their money, but they work (Sakura works at the lab most weekends, Ino works at the nearby café and Naruto works with his friend Kiba at the local garage tinkering with cars) and consequently, they make it work.

So by the time she's in front of her door, all she wants is to hibernate in her awesome bouncy bed in her kickass awesome apartment, but when she slips her key in and opens the door, she is not ready for what happens next.

She sees Ramen curled up on the comfy sofa like the spoiled dog that he was and Naruto sitting in his ugly beanbag chair in front him, facing the flat screen TV. She also sees Ino in the kitchen, standing at the island and mixing what looks like salad together. And then she sees Pizza trotting out to the open-doored balcony and tangling himself in the dark blue-jeaned legs of—get ready for this— _Sasuke,_ _flipping steak at the grill._

She's so stunned that she drops the books in her arms all over the floor.

He looks up, and not that she expected it but it's quite evident to her that like the gentleman she knows he isn't, he's not going to walk over to her and be all _oh, do you need help_ , no.

Not at all.

He just grins (it's gorgeous) and turns back to the grill.

Hmm.

As she sets about picking up her books still shocked as ever, Naruto announces, "Yo. Got a friend over for dinner. Name's Sasuke."

Fate hated her.

Truly _hated_ her.

She deposits her books at the coffee table before saying, "Sasuke, huh?"

The fireplace is crackling next to where Naruto is sitting so that's here she goes to.

"Oh, yeah," Naruto says. "You guys know each other, don't you?"

Jesus.

" _No_ ," she snaps at him. "I don't know him. He's just a guy who invites himself along each week when I walk the dogs."

He ignores her. "He came over about forty minutes ago. Saw a picture of the three of us, the one on the mantle." She knew what picture he was talking about. Sakura and her choice blondes were playing amateur ball on campus. It'd been a good day. "He was pretty surprised, said he knew you. Just a heads up, one thing led to another and somehow Ino started talking about the time you'd gotten drunk and tried to seduce us. Also that you'd done so. Also that you'd done so badly."

God.

Horrified wasn't the word for it.

In fact, they hadn't _invented_ the word for it.

That little incident was one she liked to keep buried and she had good enough reason. She had excuses for what happened that embarrassing night, though. One was that she'd been so drunk she hardly remembered the night (that had never happened before) and second was that she'd just gotten dumped by her asshole ex because she didn't agree when he didn't want exclusivity.

She didn't know just how in her drunk mind that made seducing her best friends the best option (she didn't _like_ girls and she didn't _like_ Naruto) but thank God it had all been truly PG and thank God she'd done her stripping-but-not-really-stripping-I'll-dance-for-you-all-sexy crap at the apartment and not at the campus quad's party (the party at which she'd gotten so drunk in the first place).

So, no.

She was way past horrified.

She continues to hold her head high. "How do you even know this Sasuke guy anyway?"

"He's an old friend from school. Had no idea he was back from Oto. Met up with him last Sunday, when I came to you. Got caught up talking, he got late with whatever gig he had to get to and scheduled meeting up. That's what's happening right now. And I know it was your night to choose dinner, but you were late and Ino deemed it was steak tonight. You can do your thing tomorrow."

She didn't know why Naruto thought she cared about what they ate tonight because all she cared about was that Sasuke was _here_ right now.

Also it felt nice to know he hadn't skipped out on the Sunday thing and got late talking to Naruto. Yeah, it felt nice.

She was screwed.

There wasn't much she could do about it and she was pretty hungry, so she decided everything in her head could wait until after dinner.

* * *

Okay, so he could grill steak too.

Ugh.

On top of being super hot, he could grill good steak.

Sakura finds this unbelievably annoying.

Somehow, after dinner at the balcony, after Ino went to the bathroom and Naruto went in to take call, she finds herself alone with Sasuke.

Given her luck, she hadn't doubted something like this was going to happen.

Dinner was a revelation on its own. She learned Sasuke was twenty-one (same as Naruto) but had skipped a grade and therefore graduated a year early. She also learned that he had an older brother. Also that he'd been a surly child (this one from Naruto). Also that his parents lived in Oto but traveled a lot because his father had a business to manage. And lastly that he could cook steak.

There were lots of times she'd had to volunteer information, times like if she hadn't, it'd be bad-mannered. So she went with the basics: she was nineteen, an only child, she and Ino were sophomores, her ultimate goal was to be a kickass doctor and whatnot.

Which led to now, being alone with him.

"Wanna get drunk?"

She turns to see him with faint amusement on his face and she scowls at the jab against her most embarrassing incident.

"Jerk," she can't help the laugh that escapes her.

And then _he_ laughs, low and short.

Wow.

 _That_.

She wants that for Christmas.

He's pulling her in and she doesn't think he even knows it.

She looks away and swallows the lump in her throat because this is really getting harder than it should be. Then she wonders if that's his game, the reason why he's been so... weird, was it? If he was being that way because he purposely wanted her to give in.

That's when Ino returns and afterwards, Naruto too. Sasuke leaves a while later. She says goodbye, he gives her a half-smile.

And then she wonders if he'd show up at the park next week.

* * *

He doesn't.

He doesn't the next week either.

* * *

It's fucking cold.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's nearly November and Sasuke is wearing a goddamned T-shirt.

But he's finally back on his morning run in Konoha Park after a couple of weeks of being away at Oto, and he hasn't really expected for the weather to go to shit this quick.

This is what he was thinking when he sees Sakura, sitting on that bench in the cold, wearing a loose-knit pale pink sweater and jeans, a white wool scarf around her neck, hair tumbling down, all creamy skin, fantastic lips and bright eyes as she grins and rubs Naruto's dark Lab behind his ears.

Christ, she's pretty.

Fuck going slow, he thinks to himself. They'd be having dinner tonight.

It takes him about a couple of seconds to make it to her.

"Sakura."

She jumps and looks up from the dog at him.

She stares.

Then she blinks.

Then says, "You're back."

It seems as if she's waiting for some sort of confirmation, so Sasuke nods his head once.

"Why are you back?" she then continues inanely.

Sasuke's mood pretty much took a turn.

Jesus, if she hasn't figured it out by now then she really isn't as smart as she looks.

"You were gone," she goes on, working herself up. "Like, for two Sundays. And now you're back. What _is_ that? If you're stalking me, shouldn't you be regular or something? And that dinner at the apartment? I didn't know you knew Naruto! Or that you did good steak. Why do you do good steak? And why is it that you just disappeared when you were at our place, being all hot and sort of grinning at me—"

That's it, he thinks. He takes her by the arms, pulls her close and leans in.

That's when he kisses her.

Thoroughly.

It's actually better than he thought.

When he pulls back, he sees her cheeks are flushed and her eyes are dazed, and he didn't think she could get prettier but here it is.

And like he's done many times in her presence, he grins.

She stares, a little startled.

He leans closer and says, "Dinner. Tonight."

She stills for a couple of seconds before nodding.

Yeah, Sasuke thinks. Fuck going slow.

* * *

 **hi, guys. how's it going? thanks for the reviews for this and for being patient. my next update is going to be Killin' It but since it's pretty long, it'll take its sweet time. 'til then, see you later.**

 **-lexy.**


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